CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – The Tarlac police have arrested one after the other three of the province’s top illegal drug pushers this week.
A report received by Camp Olivas here from the Tarlac police identified the first suspect to fall as Alberto Vicente, alias Pepeng of Barangay Amacalan in Gerona town who was tagged by the police as number one in the municipal anti-drug watch list or MADwatchlist.
Vicente was arrested in a buy-bust operation in Gerona last Monday. This was followed last Tuesday by the entrapment of Joel Alfonso of Barangay Abagon, also in Gerona, who reportedly took over Vicente’s operations after the latter was nabbed the day earlier.
The report said that last Wednesday, the Tarlac police also arrested Virgilio Linsao, also known as Butog, whom the police described as “the elusive No. 1 in the Paniqui town MADwatchlist. Linsao was arrested in a joint operation of the provincial police with the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.
“Linsao was cornered in a daring highway chase in Barangay Balibago 1st, Tarlac City, some 20 kilometers away, after he ignored a police checkpoint-dragnet at Barangay San Antonio. He was driving a Toyota Corona 2.0 Exsior model, plate number WSV 999, when he was pursued by the joint Gerona-CIDG police teams headed by Inspector Joel Natalicio Gamboa,” the report said.
Last week, Gerona police chief Supt. Ariel Red also led the arrest of three other suspected pushers from Paniqui in a raid of their room in Villa Crystal Hotel in Gerona. The suspects were identified as Jaypee Beltran, Aries Felix and Rogelio Lactao.
Red said half of the illegal drugs reaching Gerona come from Paniqui town. Two months ago, a policeman assigned to the Paniqui police was arrested in Gerona after he was found in possession of 13 grams of shabu.
